In which case, Halle Berry is perfect for the part.
The 2003 Academy Awards show notwithstanding. 
:eek:
Eewww-no! That would be even worse than Gambit, IMHO.
I like Gambit!
At this point in the comics, the late 70’s and early 80’s, the characters were juggled pretty evenly by Claremont. You’d be as likely to get some Cyclops-focused stories as Wolverine-focused, and Storm got slightly more of the spotlight than most of the other characters, especially after Scott left the team. The series didn’t become Wolverine-focused until much later, after there were four or five X-books, Marvel started to cater to fanboy desires, and dumped Claremont to assuage the egos of some star artists who jumped ship a shortly after anyway.
The comics have never been as Wolverine-centered as the first two movies.
I would also prefer to see the Phoenix story held off until a fourth film. And, to solve the Halle Berry (Storm) problem, do a Morlocks story for the third film…
I believe Storm left the X-Men for a time to lead the Morlocks after she apparently killed their former leader.
If they went with that idea, Halle Berry would have a major role in the third film, and there would be a good explanation for Storm leaving the team. (And while she doesn’t have to have a mohawk, I think it could be written into the story quite well. A Morlock hazing ritual perhaps? 
)
Of course, Famke Janssen (Jean Grey) would then have a more limited role in the third film. But, I’d still expect to see Jean in flashbacks, dream sequences and/or psychic contact from beyond. And there has been talk of filming the next two movies back to back.
As for the team hierarchy…
I keep a text list of comic book film adaptions. Depending on the film, I’ll either list the characters based on their prevalence in the film and it’s sequels, and/or grouped by allegiance.
For X-Men, this is how I listed the major players (of which there are many). I listed the X-Men first, then Magneto’s group, then others…
Patrick Stewart (Prof. Charles Xavier)
Famke Janssen (Dr. Jean Grey)
James Marsden (Scott Summers/Cyclops)
Halle Berry (Ororo Munroe/Storm)
Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine)
Anna Paquin (Marie D’Ancanto/Rogue)
Shawn Ashmore (Bobby Drake/Iceman)
Ian McKellan (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto)
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Raven Darkholme/Mystique)
Tyler Mane (Victor Creed/Sabretooth)
Ray Park (Mortimer Toynbee/Toad)
I never got the impression that Storm has any sort of seniority over Jean in the films. And while they may technically be considered equals, I suspect Jean would be the one X-Man the Professor would first wish to consult with in regards to the school or a mission.
I listed Cyclops before Storm simply because his relationship with Jean is a key element of the film. Wolverine isn’t even a formal member of the team yet, and Rogue and Iceman are students (the former having a much bigger role than the latter, but the latter actually having a role compared to other students.)
Mystique, while perhaps less trustworthy than Sabretooth or Toad, is obviously more important to Magneto in many aspects. Sabretooth and Toad could be considered equals, but it’s hard to take Toad as seriously. Of course, the film did do wonders for Toad’s image and reputation.
Anyhoo…
'Cause I find that character annoying.
I never said it was a good reason. 
Repetitious boilerplate disclaimer: WENN is not news. It’s a British tabloid. In order to fill their celebrity gossip pages, they commonly take stuff out of context, rearrange material, and even make shit up out of thin air (e.g. the thing a few days ago about Malkovich being cast as Voldemort in Goblet of Fire, following the thing a few months ago about Rowan Atkinson being cast in the same role). This item may be true, or it’s possible that they’re inflating and conflating tangentially related comments by the producer to take a dig at Halle Berry (who the British tabloids have loved to knock ever since her traffic incident). It’s also possible that this item has no basis in reality whatever.
I always post a disclaimer like this whenever I see a WENN-reported item being debated, and I always will until the message gets through: Don’t take these people seriously. Read the fine print at the bottom of the page; that’s IMDb’s attempt to insulate itself from the possibility that WENN will cross the line into outright libel, as the British tabloids do with some regularity. Rule One when reading WENN material: Until you see it corroborated elsewhere, treat it as fiction.
So speculate all you want about what’s going to happen with the next X-Men movie, but don’t make the mistake of thinking this “news” report gives said speculation any legitimacy.
Sorry to be a broken record, but the WENN page drives me fucking nuts.
I knew I should have put a smiley at the end of that line. I was kidding; I think the Morlocks are terrible (their leader’s name is Callisto, btw) and I hated Storm’s mohawk.
Personally, I would rather they get away from doing adaptations of stuff from the comic books (which I don’t think ever transfer well to a movie) and do some original stuff with the characters. They’ve had two films to establish the “movie X-men” and I think they should really just work on telling their own stories.
(I feel the same way about the constant re-hash in the comics of stories that were popular when the now-writers of the comics were kids: The Ultimate lines, for example, or the Post-Zero Hour Legion of Superheroes reboot.)
I’m in a quandry here whether to agree with you or disagree. There are elements of the mythos that cannot and should not be translated into the movies. For example, The Brood can’t be added into the movie mix, because the non-comic-geeks will cry foul claming that the Xmen movies have jumped the proverbial mutant shark by ripping off Aliens. Similar with the whole Shiar empire thing. It will be very difficult to add this without appearing to have lost focus (I can hear the audience shouting at the screen now, 'WTF? Now they’re in SPACE?!?!?! What the hell just happened?"). However, there could be ways to do it, and maybe, just maybe we’ll see the Shiar, the brood, Inferno, Fall of the Mutants, The Hellfire club, etc etc etc, in upcoming movies. After all, there is SO much content to adapt and making up new stuff means it isn’t The Xmen anymore. I mean, was Morph (from the cartoon) REALLY and Xman, or just the product of a fevered marketing imagination? (apologies to all Morph fans).
That said, I too would like to see Jean left dead for at least one movie. Let’s have the Sentinal threat in X3 (perhaps Bolivar Trask develops Project Widewake in spite of the president’s assurances of peaceful coexistance at the end of X2). The Xmen fight the Sentinals, Xmen fall, maybe some die, the mansion is trashed and all is lost… and then at the climax of the film there is a saviour, a mutant who can fight this mechanical menace… Jean! (hey, and we’d get to see a Fastball Special, more Wolvie madness and Collosus cool right there on the silver screen! Excelsior!). That way we have Phoenix as a special surpise in the third act of X3. Then X4 will feature the descent into Dark Phoenix, and Jean’s redemption? Death? Who knows. But it will leave X5 open to the Siege Perilous and Australia and LONGSHOT!!! Woohoo! Gimme some Mojo, gimme some Major and minor domo, gimme some X-BABIES!!!
I’ll go and have a lie-down now.
Do you mean this for all comics, or only X-Men comics? If all comics do you feel the same way about literature translated into film?
I ask because if it’s all comics that you feel translate poorly, but not literature, that’s a pretty bold stance to take, seeing as how comics are far closer to movies in structure than literature is.
If it’s just X-Men comics, that’s still a pretty bold stance to take because they’ve only made two movies, and whatever flaws you see in them could be due to the director, producers, actors, or just picking the wrong stories to start the franchise off with.
Or is it super-hero comics in general? I can see more grounding for that view since there have been plenty of super-hero comics made into movies, not that I’d agree with that stance however.
I entirely disagree.
The classic comic storylines have held up over time for a reason – they’re good. The choice of storylines must be judicious (some really won’t translate well to the screen, and some just aren’t very good), but the comic’s plots should not be discarded.
On the other hand, Hollywood has a particular talent for screwing up film franchises when they try to “make the characters their own” and write entirely original storylines for them. Indeed, let’s line up the comic-based films that have used a comic storyline versus those which have used original storylines and see which list of films make better viewing – I’d bet the former would make a better list than the latter.
N.B.: I’m not arguing for fanboyish fidelity to the comics; I recognize that different mediums demand different approaches to storytelling. All I’m arguing for is embracing the broad strokes of the comic stories.
I’ve never read the comic books (and so have only the movies to go by), but my opinion is that there are probably plenty of excellent storylines that would translate well to a two-hour movie (rather than complex ones that might take a miniseries to flesh out). I liked the first movie and really liked the second, and I look forward to someday seeing Phoenix (third? fourth movie).